Gordy

Berry Gordy had built Motown to appeal to white middle-class audiences, ensuring Ross’s performance would be a safe, mainstream choice.

Held at the Beverly Hilton ahead of Sunday’s 67th Grammys ceremony, Davis’ invite-only party drew a characteristically high-wattage crowd — guests included Jennifer Lopez, Gladys Knight, Alicia Keys, Berry Gordy, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Jack Antonoff and Davis’ old pal Nancy Pelosi — for an evening of music and tactical hobnobbing that Jimmy Kimmel likened to “Clive Davis’ bar mitzvah.”

Then I played it for Maurice White, and I was even more nervous than with Berry Gordy.

Even “Gordy the weatherman,” as many of us first knew Amos, on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” fit the bill.

“Gordy was articulate,” Amos recalled in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation.